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Story- Substance- Structure- Style and The Principles of Screenwriting

1 stars (Do not buy this book) - After reading some of the reviews of this book I took a chance and bought it - and I am hugely disappointed. I made it to about page 50, when I realised I had not read even one thing of importance to myself or to any aspiring screenwriter. I hope Mckee is a good screenwriter, because he is a terrible writer. A complete waste of time and money. Eric Winter 2 stars (Write the abridged version, please.) - I am in a morgue with the author; he is conducting an autopsy. Strewn across the table lays the body of a story, bloated, maggot ridden, mouth agape, eyes bulging, staring up at me. I am gowned, goggled, gloved, a smear of vapor rub under my nose to mask the eye-watering stench. The author, scalpel and skewer in hand, slicing, jabbing, ripping, tearing, dissects the guts and organs of the story in long-winded, over-analyzed, often pointless detail; blathering story terminology, rancid lecturing, he rambles on and on, four hundred pages, which in spite of the vapor rub, still reeks of gagging boredom. Finishing, pushing the corpse off the table, sopping up the mess, trying desperately not to spit up my coffee, suddenly, to me, writing a story seems laborious and gruesome. Confused, bloodied, horrified, I think, `Can it really be this complicated?' I hope not. 5 stars (The best screenwriting book I've read) - Too many books on writing simply say "Just do it!" They tell you, quite adamantly, to "fire up your word processor and hack away at something until you come out with a story. Since you don't really know what you're doing, your story will probably be bad, but go ahead and write another one!" That kind of advice is ridiculous. You wouldn't give the same advice to an aspiring airplane pilot, or a brain surgeon, or a cop or a musician. Nor would you give it to a cabinet-maker or an auto mechanic or a house painter. So why do writers insist on giving the same advice to other aspiring writers? I think it's because most wri...
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